Field
The present technology relates to systems and methods for transporting palletized product.
Description of Related Art
Fruits and vegetables are living organisms that continue essential chemical and physiological activities after harvest. These activities can include physiological breakdown, physical injury to tissue, invasion by microorganisms, and moisture loss. Additionally, some fruits and vegetables can suffer damage while being transported hot from the field. Thus, the time between harvest and cooling to remove field heat and slow plant respiration, otherwise known as the “cut-to-cool” interval, is critical for ensuring the quality and safety of the product.
The term “cold chain” refers to the uninterrupted temperature management of perishable product in order to maintain quality and safety from the point of post-harvest cooling through the distribution chain to the final consumer. The cold chain ensures that perishable product are safe and of high quality at the point of consumption. Failing to keep product at the correct temperatures can result in a variety of negative attributes including, among others, textural degradation, discoloring, bruising, and microbial growth.
Typically, fruits and vegetables may be harvested into trucks which carry the produce to fixed-base cooling facilities, where the produce is cooled and the cold chain begins. The produce is then transported from the cooling facilities to their final destination, often in refrigerated semi-trailers called reefers. Transporting produce to and from a cooling facility has several drawbacks. First, during transport from the field to the cooling facility in open vehicles, the produce is generally exposed to wind, sun and heat, which can result in moisture loss, physiological breakdown and textural degradation.
A further drawback is the need to have produce grown proximately to cooling facilities to minimize the time between harvest and cooling. This has the effect of limiting the uses of fertile areas to only certain durable crops if they are too far from a cooling facility. This has the further effect of artificially driving up the cost of fertile areas near a cooling facility.